Springfield golden retriever helps in fight to cure dog cancer

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Dec 22, 2017 at 6:34 PMDec 23, 2017 at 9:08 AM

Crystal Thomas Staff Writer @crystalclear224

Once a year for the last five years, Jonesy has had a rotten day in January.

That day, the golden retriever hops into the crate stored in the back of his owner Christi McGinness’ SUV and takes a trip from their home in Southern View to West Lake Animal Hospital in Springfield. McGinness already has Jonesy’s urine and fecal matter ready to go in a collection kit.

At first, Jonesy resists when he sees where the car trip leads. But with encouragement from McGinness, Jonesy prances inside, where Dr. Lyndsey Houmes collects his blood, toenail clippings and fur. Those samples, along with lengthy questionnaires answered by Houmes and McGinness, are sent off to researchers as a part of the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study.

Jonesy may not know it, but he’s one of more than 3,000 purebred golden retrievers across the country in the $32 million study, which looks to find insights into the causes of cancers and other diseases unique to dogs.

According to The Washington Post, all the dogs were enrolled in the study before they turned 2, and all will be closely tracked for their entire lives. The researchers, from Colorado State University and the Morris Animal Foundation, are not just analyzing biological matter. They’re also compiling exhaustive data, recorded and reported each year by the dogs’ owners, on every aspect of the pooches’ lives: what they eat, where they sleep, whether their lawns are treated with pesticides, whether their teeth get brushed and more.

Longitudinal studies like this — with information gathered in real time — help researchers detect causes and effects that might be missed in other kinds of studies.

But this is the first and largest lifetime longitudinal study of pets, and the hope is that it will shed light on links between golden retrievers’ health and their genetics, diets, environments and lifestyles.

That information, by extension, could be useful for other breeds, as well as people, who develop cancer and respond to treatments in similar ways to dogs.

Jonesy had his first rotten January sample collection day when he was six months old. McGinness, who has had been owner and rescuer of golden retrievers for all her life, found out about the study through a Yahoo golden retriever message board that she had been a part of for years. After having five of the several golden retrievers she owned die of cancer, McGinness said she wanted to help prevent any dog or owner from feeling that pain.

McGinness also holds on to the hope that the research gathered in the study could one day help the fight against cancer in humans. In October, her brother died of pancreatic cancer the day before his 60th birthday.

“Otherwise I wouldn’t put a dog through this,” McGinness said. “It’s like I don’t have a choice, you know?”

Cancer is the leading cause of death in dogs over age 2 and something diagnosed in half of dogs older than 10. The prevalence is believed to be slightly higher in golden retrievers, which most often succumb to mast cell tumors, bone cancer, lymphoma or hemangiosarcoma (originating in the lining of blood vessels).

But that is not the only reason the bouncy, amiable breed is the study’s focus. Goldens are the third-most popular dogs in the United States, which made it easier for researchers to find 3,000 subjects; they also tend to have besotted owners who pay close attention to their health — an important criteria for a project that demands years of owner commitment.

A fellow golden retriever fan in Canada donated Jonesy to McGinness after he found out that her previous service dog had died.

“He’s probably the least aggressive, most loving dog I ever met,” McGinness said. She joked, “He probably should have a therapy dog.”

Jonesy helps McGinness find her way through grocery stores and can exert a calming pressure by leaning against McGinness’ knees. A former teacher, McGinness brings Jonesy with her when she volunteers to tutor students at Black Hawk Elementary School. One of her second-graders gets quality Jonesy time as an incentive for finishing his work.

Her hope for her five-and-half-year-old pooch is that he lives a long, healthy life, free of cancer.

“That’s my biggest fear for him,” McGinness said. “You live with that fear.”

The study began in 2012, and Jonesy is on the older end of the dogs who participate. It has produced no major revelations yet; its oldest participants are 7 and not widely afflicted with cancer or other ills. But annual surveys have yielded interesting tidbits about the dogs’ lives. One in five sleeps with its owner. Forty percent swim at least once a week. Twenty-two percent drink or eat from a plastic bowl, and about one in four eats grass.

And the researchers’ prediction — that the breed’s owners would be an enthusiastic study group — has been validated. They have an incredibly active private Facebook group, plus local meetups with their “hero” pets.

McGinness said there are more than 2,500 people in the Facebook group.

“Right now, it’s kind of sad because we are losing dogs to cancer,” McGinness said.

Jonesy is one of the only golden retrievers to participate in the study in the Springfield area, though there are a few in the Chicago-land area, McGinness said.

Come January, Jonesy will have his sixth rotten day. Houmes said more extensive testing will be done on Jonesy as he gets older and possibly more ill.

But, like every year, the day will end on a highlight for the golden retriever: two cheeseburgers from McDonald’s.

The Washington Post contributed to this report.

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